Network & Broadband Infrastructure

Marshall University’s Campus Network (MUnet) is a state-of-the-art 10 Gb Ethernet backbone based network linking all buildings on the Huntington Campus with WAN links to our regional campus, centers, and medical clinics. MUnet supports over 11,000 switched gigabit Ethernet ports and nearly 350 WiFi 802.11n wireless access points. The Huntington Campus is connected to the South Charleston Campus by a 100 Mb Transparent LAN Service (TLS) circuit provided by Frontier Communications (formally Verizon) and a 100 Mb diverse path NTelos MPLS circuit. The Mid Ohio Valley Center campus in Point Pleasant is linked to the Huntington Campus by a 100Mb Frontier Communications TLS circuit. The Medical Education Building and VA Hospital in Spring Valley and the Marshall University Research Corporation in downtown Huntington are connected by a 100 Mb Frontier Communications TLS circuits. Various smaller learning centers like the Larry Joe Harless Center in Gilbert and clinical facilities are connected via 10 Mb Frontier Communications TLS or NTelos MPLS circuits.

The Huntington Campus network is linked by a university owned metro fiber point to point service to the Robert C. Byrd Center for Flexible Manufacturing and the Marshall University Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine (JCESOM) Campus adjacent to Cabell Huntington Hospital. The School of Medical metro fiber also extends to the JCESOM Fairfield Campus linking the Erma Ora Byrd Clinical Center and the Forensic Science Center to the MUnet.

Completion of an FCC grant funded project to extend the current Huntington metro fiber network to St. Mary’s Medical Center, St. Mary’s Medical Center Education Center, Cabell Huntington Hospital, the JCESOM, the JCESOM Fairfield campus, and the Marshall University Robert C. Byrd Biotechnology Science Center, and MUnet with two redundant 10 Gb Ethernet rings should be complete in early 2011. These metro Ethernet rings will provide the bandwidth and redundancy needed to enable the next generation medical and collaboration technologies.

The MUnet campus networks are connected to 600 Mbs of commodity Internet Service provided by dual diverse path Internet Service Providers (ISP). Marshall University is also a member of Internet2 and is connected to Internet2 with 1 Gb of service via the Ohio Academic and Research Network (OARnet). Plans are underway to extend the total commodity Internet Service of MUnet to 1.5 Gb provided by a third ISP with a third diverse path before the end of 2010. This bandwidth and redundancy will provide the reliability and services needed to support current campus initiatives.

All MUnet services provide full Quality of Service (QoS) on all network ports and multicasting in support of voice, data, and video services and other real time applications. All services are switched and operate at full wire speeds.

MUnet supports full Voice over IP, VoIP, telephony services with unified communications and voice mail to nearly 3,500 extensions and a limited number of FAX and other analog lines via analog gateways.

MUnet central video conferencing services support full High Definition (HD) conferencing at 720p or 1080p. All HD endpoints are capable of a four way video call. Support for video calls with more than four concurrent endpoints is provided by a 20 port Multi Point Control units supporting full HD.

Web Conferencing for virtual classrooms is provided by the Wimba Collaboration Suite, now Blackboard Collaborate. This service provides a full virtual classroom experiences with student breakout rooms, lecture recording/archiving, and poll/question/quizzing during on-demand archived sessions. Rooms are also available for campus meetings and other event functions.